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84-558: Karen Gay Silkwood (February 19, 1946 – November 13, 1974) was an American chemical technician and labor union activist known for reporting concerns about corporate practices related to health and safety in a nuclear facility. She worked at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Crescent, Oklahoma, making plutonium pellets . She was the first woman ever elected to

168-573: A New York Times journalist whom Tony Mazzocchi referred her to. Burnham had previously broken the Frank Serpico police corruption case and was now researching atomic energy issues. On November 13, 1974, Silkwood attended a 5:30 p.m. union meeting, along with ten other members of the OCAW local, at the Hub Cafe in Crescent. She made a brief presentation and sipped iced tea. Another attendee at

252-589: A $ 10,000 project to observe local animal populations and the effects of secondary succession on abandoned farmland around the nuclear plant. In 1961, AEC chairman Glenn T. Seaborg established the Technical Analysis Branch (to be directed by Hal Hollister) to study the long-term biological and ecological effects of nuclear war. Throughout the early 1960s, this group of scientists conducted several studies to determine nuclear weapons' ecological consequences and their implications for human life. As

336-476: A fixed rate for purchasing ore through one of the mills in the area. This prompted individuals to discover and produce the ore, which the government would then buy. The AEC was the only legal buyer of uranium from the beginning of the program in 1947 through 1966. From 1966 to the end of the program in 1970, the AEC continued to buy uranium to support the market until private industry could develop sufficiently. Because

420-542: A heart attack. There was no autopsy. Someone tried to murder a Kerr-McGee manager who knew too much. Someone tried to assassinate Bill Taylor, the chief investigator for the legal team representing the Silkwood family. And then there were all those strange clicks on everyone's telephone." The trial occurred in spring of 1979. Gerry Spence was the chief attorney for the Silkwood estate; the other major attorneys were Daniel Sheehan , Arthur Angel, and James Ikard. William Paul

504-827: A high school graduate with training to become a chemical technician, but more often, a two-year degree will be required. Chemical technologists generally require completion of a specific college program—either two year or four year— in chemical, biochemical, or chemical engineering technology or a closely related discipline. They usually work under or with a scientist such as a chemist or biochemist . Chemical or biochemical technicians often work in clinical (medical) laboratories conducting routine analyses of medical samples such as blood and urine. Industries which employ chem techs include chemical , petrochemical , and pharmaceutical industries. Companies within these industries can be concerned with manufacturing , research and development (R&D), consulting , quality control , and

588-528: A national agency on funding bio-environmental research in the Arctic. Research took place at Cape Thompson on the northwest coast of Alaska, and was tied to an excavation proposal named Project Chariot . The excavation project was to involve a series of underground nuclear detonations that would create an artificial harbor, consisting of a channel and circular terminal basin, which would fill with water. This would have allowed for enhanced ecological research of

672-501: A need to increase production. She appeared at the AEC hearings along with the two other committee members who likewise testified that Kerr-McGee was endangering its workers. The whistleblowing effort, and the visibility it brought, helped fight off decertification. The Cimarron workers voted 80-61 in October to keep the OCAW as their bargaining agent. On November 5, 1974, Silkwood performed a routine self-check that showed almost 400 times

756-498: A result of exposure to radon gas in uranium mines. The AEC was connected with the U.S. Department of Defense by a "Military Liaison Committee"'. The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy exercised congressional oversight over the AEC and had considerable power in influencing AEC decisions and policy. The AEC's far-reaching powers and control over a subject matter which had far-reaching social, public health, and military implications made it an extremely controversial organization. One of

840-512: A result, during the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. government placed emphasis on the development and potential use of "clean" nuclear weapons to mitigate these effects. In later years, the AEC began providing increased research opportunities to scientists by approving funding for ecological studies at various nuclear testing sites, most notably at Eniwetok , which was part of the Marshall Islands . Through their support of nuclear testing,

924-500: A variety of other areas. Also, chem techs working for these companies may be used to conduct quality control and other routine analyses, or assist in chemical and biochemical research including analyses, industrial chemistry, environmental protection , and even chemical engineering . As a general rule, chemical technologists are more likely to be provided with greater autonomy and more complex responsibilities than chemical technicians. The most common work done by chemical technicians

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1008-542: Is .25 mg; a toxic dose, .50 mg." The Oklahoma Highway Patrol report concluded that she fell asleep at the wheel and died as a result of an accident. The OCAW hired a crash investigator, A. O. Pipkin Jr., to examine the car and the scene of the crash. Based on his examination, Silkwood had not fallen asleep while driving: "The steering wheel was bent back on the sides, proving she'd been wide awake and hanging on tight as she tried to maintain control." In support of his notion that she

1092-560: Is in R&;D . They often work in a laboratory environment under the supervision of a chemist or a chemical engineer . They may typically assist in setting up and conducting chemical experiments , and may operate lab equipment under supervision. They are expected to maintain established quality control standards. They may also compile records for analytical studies, and sometimes are involved in writing reports on studies. National certification for chemical technologists and technicians

1176-558: Is required in some countries. United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission ( AEC ) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S. Truman signed the McMahon/Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946, transferring

1260-506: The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP); previously Lilienthal had opposed his appointment. Lilienthal was told to "forgo your desire to place a bottle of milk on every doorstop and get down to the business of producing atomic weapons." Nichols became General Manager of the AEC on 2 November 1953. The AEC was in charge of developing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, taking over these responsibilities from

1344-472: The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 , which for the first time made the development of commercial nuclear power possible, and resolved a number of other outstanding problems in implementing the first Atomic Energy Act. The act assigned the AEC the functions of both encouraging the use of nuclear power and regulating its safety . The AEC's regulatory programs sought to ensure public health and safety from

1428-739: The Atomic Energy Commission and the State Medical Examiner requested analysis of Silkwood's organs by the Los Alamos Tissue Analysis Program. On November 18, she was buried in Kilgore, Texas . Silkwood’s plutonium contamination and the mysterious circumstances of her death became a national news story. It aroused public suspicion and resulted in a federal investigation of Cimarron plant security. National Public Radio reported that

1512-723: The Department of Energy . The new agency assumed the responsibilities of the Federal Energy Administration (FEA), the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), the Federal Power Commission (FPC), and various other federal agencies. In creating the AEC, Congress declared that atomic energy should be employed not only in the form of nuclear weapons for the nation's defense, but also to promote world peace , improve

1596-769: The Hanford site in Washington. In 1953, the AEC ran several studies on the health effects of radioactive iodine in newborns and pregnant women at the University of Iowa . Also in 1953, the AEC sponsored a study to discover if radioactive iodine affected premature babies differently from full-term babies. In the experiment, researchers from Harper Hospital in Detroit orally administered iodine-131 to 65 premature and full-term infants who weighed from 2.1 to 5.5 pounds (0.95 to 2.49 kg). In another AEC study, researchers at

1680-613: The Manhattan Project 's Los Alamos Laboratory , physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer voiced strong opinions to the AEC, as chairman of its general advisory board of nuclear scientists, against development of the "super" or hydrogen bomb along with Lilienthal. Subsequently, Lilienthal left the AEC at the White House's request in 1950 and Oppenheimer's appointment to the board was not renewed in 1952. With them removed, President Truman announced his decision to develop and produce

1764-458: The Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) local. In November 1972, she participated in a strike to protest poor working conditions. Kerr-McGee succeeded in breaking the strike by hiring people from the surrounding area to cross the picket line. The company's managers also began "working behind the scenes to entice workers to sign a petition calling for a decertification election to eliminate

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1848-601: The University of Nebraska College of Medicine fed iodine-131 to 28 healthy infants through a gastric tube to test the concentration of iodine in the infants' thyroid glands. During the 1960s and early 1970s, the Atomic Energy Commission came under fire from opposition concerned with more fundamental ecological problems such as the pollution of air and water. Under the Nixon Administration, environmental consciousness grew exponentially and

1932-503: The glovebox , but from some other source. The next morning, as she left for a union meeting, Silkwood again tested positive for plutonium, although she had performed only paperwork tasks that morning. She was given a more intensive decontamination. On November 7, as she entered the plant, she was found to be severely contaminated, even expelling contaminated air from her lungs. A health physics team accompanied her back to her home and found plutonium traces on several surfaces, especially in

2016-413: The 1950s, such concerns led the AEC to build a large ecology research group at their Oak Ridge National Laboratory , which was instrumental in the development of radioecology . A wide variety of research efforts in biology and medicine took place under the umbrella of the AEC at national laboratories and at some universities with agency sponsorship and funding. As a result of increased funding as well as

2100-497: The AEC exceptional freedom in hiring its scientists and engineers, AEC employees were exempt from the civil service system. The AEC's first order of business was to inspect the scattered empire of atomic plants and laboratories to be inherited from the U.S. Army. Because of the great need for security, all production facilities and nuclear reactors would be government-owned, while all technical information and research results would be under AEC control. The National Laboratory system

2184-474: The AEC gave ecologists a unique opportunity to study the effects of radiation on whole populations and entire ecological systems in the field. Prior to 1954, no one had investigated a complete ecosystem with the intent to measure its overall metabolism, but the AEC provided the means as well as the funding to do so. Ecological development was further spurred by environmental concerns about radioactive waste from nuclear energy and postwar atomic weapons production. In

2268-417: The AEC provided the most conspicuous example of the benefit of atomic age technologies to biology and medicine. Shortly after the Atomic Energy Commission was established, its Division of Biology and Medicine began supporting diverse programs of research in the life sciences, mainly the fields of genetics, physiology, and ecology. Specifically concerning the AEC's relationship with the field of ecology, one of

2352-636: The AEC to the new Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which began operations on January 19, 1975. Promotional functions went to the Energy Research and Development Administration which was later incorporated into the United States Department of Energy. Lasting through the mid-1970s, the AEC, along with other entities including the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society,

2436-607: The AEC's regulatory programs had come under such strong attack that the U.S. Congress decided to abolish the AEC. The AEC was abolished by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 , which assigned its functions to two new agencies: the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission . On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Department of Energy Organization Act , which created

2520-789: The AEC, support was often given to research in these fields indirectly as an extension of their efforts for peaceful applications of nuclear energy. The AEC issued a large number of technical reports through their technical information service and other channels. These had many numbering schemes, often associated with the lab from which the report was issued. AEC report numbers included AEC-AECU (unclassified), AEC-AECD (declassified), AEC-BNL ( Brookhaven National Lab ), AEC-HASL (Health and Safety Laboratory), AEC-HW (Hanford Works), AEC-IDO (Idaho Operations Office), AEC-LA (Los Alamos), AEC-MDCC (Manhattan District), AEC-TID (Technical Information Division), and others. Today, these reports can be found in library collections that received government documents, through

2604-456: The Cimarron plant was so lax, workers could easily smuggle out finished plutonium pellets. Kerr-McGee closed its nuclear fuel plants in 1975. The Department of Energy (DOE) reported the Cimarron plant as fully decontaminated and decommissioned by 1994. Silkwood's father and her children filed a lawsuit against Kerr-McGee for gross negligence on behalf of her estate. The time leading up to

Karen Silkwood - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-453: The Honda tracks in the grass showed the car did not drift , but was actually out of control before it left the highway. "The only way that this car could have been put in that attitude," he wrote, "was either an impact by an unknown vehicle or a combination of an impact by an unknown vehicle and driver over-reaction and subsequent loss of control." But most significantly, Pipkin found damage to

2772-779: The Manhattan Project, and various universities funded or conducted human radiation experiments . The government covered up most of these radiation mishaps until 1993, when President Bill Clinton ordered a change of policy. Nuclear radiation was known to be dangerous and deadly (from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945), and the experiments were designed to ascertain the detailed effect of radiation on human health. In Oregon, 67 prisoners with inadequate consent to vasectomies had their testicles exposed to irradiation. In Chicago, 102 volunteers with unclear consent received injections of strontium and cesium solutions to simulate radioactive fallout. For many years,

2856-531: The Northeast, although a similar lab in Southern California did not eventuate. On 11 March 1948 Lilienthal and Kenneth Nichols were summoned to the White House where Truman told them "I know you two hate each other’s guts". He directed that "the primary objective of the AEC was to develop and produce atomic weapons", Nichols was appointed a major general and replaced Leslie Groves as chief of

2940-416: The U.S. were stricken, and many planned nuclear plants were canceled. By 1974, the AEC's regulatory programs had come under such strong attack that Congress decided to abolish the agency. Supporters and critics of nuclear power agreed that the promotional and regulatory duties of the AEC should be assigned to different agencies. The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 transferred the regulatory functions of

3024-417: The actual design of experiments, and may be involved in the interpretation of experimental data. They may also be responsible for the operation of chemical processes in large plants , and may even assist chemical engineers in the design of the same. Some post-secondary education is generally required to be either a chemical technician or technologist. Occasionally, a company may be willing to provide

3108-413: The agency grew. The AEC was chiefly held responsible for the health problems of people living near atmospheric test sites from the early 1960s, and there was a strong association of nuclear energy with the radioactive fallout from these tests. Around the same time, the AEC was also struggling with opposition to nuclear power plant siting as well as nuclear testing. An organized push was finally made to curb

3192-409: The arctic regions of the globe made ideal locations in which to pursue ecological research, especially since at the time there was minimal human modification of the landscape. All investigations conducted by the AEC produced new data from the Arctic, but few or none of them were supported solely on that basis. While the development of ecology and other sciences was not always the primary objective of

3276-402: The area in conjunction with any nuclear testing that might occur, as it essentially would have created a controlled environment where levels and patterns of radioactive fallout resulting from weapons testing could be measured. The proposal never went through, but it evidenced the AEC's interest in Arctic research and development. The simplicity of biotic compositions and ecological processes in

3360-449: The bathroom and the refrigerator. When the house was later stripped and decontaminated, some of her property had to be destroyed. Silkwood, her boyfriend Drew Stephens, and her roommate Sherri Ellis were sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory for in-depth testing to determine the extent of the contamination in their bodies. There were questions about how Silkwood became contaminated during this three-day period from November 5-7. She said

3444-619: The company's reputation. According to Richard Rashke 's book The Killing of Karen Silkwood , the particular type of plutonium found in Silkwood's home came from a Cimarron production area, pellet lot 29, where she did not work. Starting in August, the pellet lot 29 samples were kept in a Kerr-McGee vault to which she did not have access. By November, Silkwood believed she had assembled sufficient documentation, including company papers, to corroborate her claims against Kerr-McGee. She decided to go public with this evidence and contacted David Burnham ,

Karen Silkwood - Misplaced Pages Continue

3528-524: The contamination in Silkwood's body was within legal standards. The defense later proposed that Silkwood was a troublemaker who might have poisoned herself. After the summation arguments, Judge Frank Theis told the jury, "[I]f you find that the damage to the person or property of Karen Silkwood resulted from the operation of this plant ... defendant Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation is liable...." The jury rendered its verdict of US$ 505,000 in damages and US$ 10,000,000 in punitive damages . On appeal in federal court,

3612-504: The contamination in the bathroom may have occurred when she spilled her urine sample on the morning of November 7. This was consistent with the fact that the samples she collected at home had extremely high levels of plutonium, while the samples collected in "fresh" jars at the plant and at Los Alamos showed much lower levels. She concluded that someone working for Kerr-McGee had deliberately contaminated her. Kerr-McGee's management alleged that Silkwood had contaminated herself in order to harm

3696-524: The control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands, effective on January 1, 1947. This shift gave the members of the AEC complete control of the plants, laboratories, equipment, and personnel assembled during the war to produce the atomic bomb. An increasing number of critics during the 1960s charged that the AEC's regulations were insufficiently rigorous in several important areas, including radiation protection standards, nuclear reactor safety, plant siting, and environmental protection. By 1974,

3780-513: The couple filed for bankruptcy due to Meadows' excessive spending habits, and after his refusal to end an extramarital affair , Silkwood left him in 1972 and relocated to Oklahoma City where she worked briefly as a hospital clerk. In August 1972, Silkwood was hired as a metallography laboratory technician with the Kerr-McGee Corporation at their Cimarron River plutonium production plant near Crescent, Oklahoma . She soon joined

3864-408: The documents. Another hypothesis is that she was being chased to force her to halt. She drove evasively, including speeding along the left grass shoulder, and while looking behind her or to her right at the chase car, she didn't realize until too late that she was racing toward the culvert. However, the various theories about foul play have never been substantiated. Due to concerns about contamination,

3948-485: The drafters of the McMahon Act, James R. Newman , famously concluded that the bill made "the field of atomic energy [an] island of socialism in the midst of a free-enterprise economy". Before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was created, nuclear regulation was the responsibility of the AEC, which Congress first established in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 . Eight years later, Congress replaced that law with

4032-591: The environment was brought to the forefront of a growing public controversy that had been building since 1965. In search for an ideal location for a large-yield nuclear test, the AEC settled upon the island of Amchitka , part of the Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The main public concern was about their location choice, as there was a large colony of endangered sea otters in close proximity. To help defuse

4116-425: The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Along with rising environmental awareness came a growing suspicion of the AEC and public hostility for their projects increased. In the public eye, there was a strong association between nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and even though the AEC had made a push in the late 1960s, to portray their efforts as being geared toward peaceful uses of atomic energy, criticism of

4200-609: The first approved funding grants went to Eugene Odum in 1951. This grant sought to observe and document the effects of radiation emission on the environment from a recently built nuclear facility on the Savannah River in South Carolina. Odum, a professor at the University of Georgia, initially submitted a proposal requesting annual funding of $ 267,000, but the AEC rejected the proposal and instead offered to fund

4284-466: The government itself was not producing ore, it claimed that it had no obligation to regulate miner safety. A congressional report published in 1995 concluded that, "The government failed to act to require the reduction of the hazard by ventilating the mines, and it failed to adequately warn the miners of the hazard to which they were being exposed." The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 sought to compensate miners and families who developed cancer as

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4368-431: The hazards of nuclear power without imposing excessive requirements that would inhibit the growth of the industry. This was a difficult goal to achieve, especially in a new industry, and within a short time the AEC's programs stirred considerable controversy. Stephanie Cooke has written that: the AEC had become an oligarchy controlling all facets of the military and civilian sides of nuclear energy, promoting them and at

4452-659: The hydrogen bomb. The first test firing of an experimental H-bomb (" Ivy Mike ") was carried out in the Central Pacific on November 1, 1952, under President Truman. Furthermore, U.S. Navy Admiral Lewis W. Strauss was appointed in 1953 by the new President Eisenhower as the Chairman of the AEC, to carry out the military development and production of the H-bomb. Lilienthal wanted to give high priority to peaceful uses, especially with nuclear power plants . However, coal

4536-408: The increased opportunities given to scientists and the field of ecology in general, a plethora of new techniques were developed which led to rapid growth and expansion of the field as a whole. One of these techniques afforded to ecologists involved the use of radiation, namely in ecological dating and to study the effects of stresses on the environment. In 1969, the AEC's relationship with science and

4620-399: The investigation determined 20 to 30 kilograms (44–66 lb) of plutonium had been misplaced at the plant. The unaccounted-for nuclear material generated speculation as to its whereabouts. Richard Rashke suggested that the missing plutonium may have been stolen by "a plutonium smuggling ring" given that the quantity was enough to make three or four nuclear bombs. He added that security at

4704-577: The issue, the AEC sought a formal agreement with the Department of the Interior and the U.S. state of Alaska to help transplant the colony of sea otters to other former habitats along the West Coast. The AEC played a role in expanding the field of arctic ecology . From 1959 to 1962, the Commission's interest in this type of research peaked. For the first time, extensive effort was placed by

4788-736: The judgment was reduced to US$ 5,000, the estimated value of Silkwood's losses in property at her rental house, and reversing the award of punitive damages. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court restored the original verdict. In Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. 464 US 238 (1984), the court ruled that "the NRC 's exclusive authority to set safety standards did not foreclose the use of state tort remedies." Although indicating it would appeal for other reasons, Kerr-McGee agreed to settle out of court for US$ 1.38 million ($ 3.75 million in 2021 dollars), while admitting no liability. Chemical technician Chemical technologists are more likely than technicians to participate in

4872-431: The lack of sufficient shower facilities was increasing the risk of employee contamination. She also found evidence of missing or misplaced plutonium. On September 26, 1974, Silkwood and the two other committee members attended a meeting in Washington, D.C. with Tony Mazzocchi , OCAW's legislative director. The committee members voiced their complaints about the dangerous workplace conditions and sought advice on how to win

4956-427: The legal limit for plutonium contamination. She was decontaminated at the plant and sent home with a testing kit to collect urine and feces for further analysis. Although there was plutonium on the inner portions of the gloves which she had been using, the gloves did not have any leaks or perforations according to tests performed subsequently by Kerr-McGee personnel. This suggests the contamination had come not from inside

5040-551: The meeting, Wanda Jean Jung, stated in a sworn affidavit in January 1975 that Silkwood had a folder, a spiral notebook, and a packet of documents with her at the cafe. During a break in the meeting, Jung said she spoke with Silkwood who was crying quietly and admitted how frightened she was "that she had been so badly contaminated, she would eventually get cancer and die from the plutonium in her lungs." But then, Jung stated in her affidavit, Karen pointed to her documents and said, "there

5124-488: The national press. To that end, the OCAW initiated an aggressive whistleblowing campaign. They claimed that "the Kerr-McGee plant had manufactured faulty fuel rods , falsified product inspection records, and risked employee safety". The union threatened litigation. On September 27, Silkwood testified to the AEC about having been contaminated with plutonium, and she alleged that safety standards had been relaxed because of

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5208-648: The plutonium contamination that Silkwood suffered from. The company settled out of court for US$ 1.38 million, while not admitting liability. Her story was chronicled in Mike Nichols 's 1983 Academy Award -nominated movie Silkwood in which she was portrayed by Meryl Streep . Karen Gay Silkwood was born in 1946 in Longview, Texas , and raised in Nederland , Texas. She lived with her mother Merle, father Bill, and sisters Rose Mary and Linda. In high school, Karen

5292-563: The power held by the AEC, and in 1970 the AEC was forced to prepare an Environmental impact statement (EIS) for a nuclear test in northwestern Colorado as part of the initial preparation for Project Rio Blanco . In 1973, the AEC predicted that, by the turn of the century, one thousand reactors would be needed producing electricity for homes and businesses across the United States. However, after 1973, orders for nuclear reactors declined sharply as electricity demand fell and construction costs rose. Some partially completed nuclear power plants in

5376-530: The prosecution of the Rosenbergs for espionage. The AEC also began a program of regular nuclear weapons testing , both in the faraway Pacific Proving Grounds and at the Nevada Test Site in the western United States. While the AEC also supported much basic research, the vast majority of its early budget was devoted to nuclear weapons development and production. After serving as director of

5460-561: The public welfare and strengthen free competition in private enterprise. At the same time, the McMahon Act which created the AEC also gave it unprecedented powers of regulation over the entire field of nuclear science and technology. It furthermore explicitly prevented technology transfer between the United States and other countries, and required FBI investigations for all scientists or industrial contractors who wished to have access to any AEC controlled nuclear information. The signing

5544-443: The rear of the vehicle which, according to her friends, had not been present before. As the crash was entirely a head-on, front-end collision, it didn't explain the fresh dents on the left rear fender and the bumper above it. A microscopic analysis of the rear of the car revealed paint chips that could have come only from impact by another vehicle. In light of Pipkin's findings, some friends and journalists theorized that Silkwood's car

5628-451: The same time attempting to regulate them, and it had fallen down on the regulatory side ... a growing legion of critics saw too many inbuilt conflicts of interest. The AEC had a history of involvement in experiments involving radioactive iodine . In a 1949 operation called the " Green Run ", the AEC released iodine-131 and xenon-133 to the atmosphere which contaminated a 500,000-acre (2,000 km ) area containing three small towns near

5712-455: The tailings of vanadium plants in the US West during World War II. The Colorado Plateau was known to contain veins of carnotite ore, which contains both vanadium and uranium. The AEC developed its program in accordance with the principle of free enterprise. Rather than discovering, mining, and processing the ore itself, the federal government provided geological information, built roads, and set

5796-427: The trial was likewise filled with controversy. According to Rashke, officials investigating Kerr-McGee's operations and the circumstances of the car crash were themselves at risk: "People had been tailed and forced off lonely roads by speeding cars. Two shadowy characters about to be subpoenaed suddenly packed up their attaché cases and fled to West Germany. One apparently healthy police officer about to be deposed died of

5880-420: The union's negotiating team at Kerr-McGee. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission about her safety concerns, she was found to have plutonium contamination in her body and her home. While driving to meet with a New York Times journalist and an official of her union's national office, she died in a car crash, the circumstances of which were never explained entirely. Her family sued Kerr-McGee for

5964-606: The union." In August 1974, Silkwood was elected to the OCAW local's three-person bargaining committee, the first woman to hold such a position at Kerr-McGee. It was a critical time for the local as the decertification drive had collected enough signatures to force an election on October 16. Silkwood's specific union duties included investigating health and safety issues. She discovered at the Cimarron plant what she considered to be numerous violations of health regulations, such as exposure of workers to contamination, faulty respiratory equipment, and improper storage of samples. She believed

6048-480: The upcoming decertification election. Mazzocchi recalled how Silkwood took him aside at one point and said, "You know, there's some other problems that I'd like to talk to you about.": I said, "What are they?" She said, "I work in a quality-control lab, and I noticed the lab technician would use a felt pen on the X-ray to cover over that little thin line that showed a crack in the control rod welds." And she told me there

6132-586: The wall caused her to be impaled by her steering wheel and pinned to the roof of the Honda Civic. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Silkwood's car contained none of the documents she had been holding in the meeting at the Hub Cafe. The Oklahoma state trooper at the crash site remembers that he found one or two tablets of the sedative methaqualone ( Quaalude ) in the car, and what he believed were two marijuana joints. The coroner found 0.35 milligrams of methaqualone in her blood — "a therapeutic dose

6216-557: The wartime Manhattan Project . In its first decade, the AEC oversaw the operation of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory , devoted primarily to weapons development, and in 1952, the creation of new second weapons laboratory in California, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory . The AEC also carried out the "crash program" to develop the hydrogen bomb (H-bomb), and the AEC played a key role in

6300-590: Was a straight 'A' student and a member of the National Honor Society. Chemistry was her best subject. In the fall of 1964, she enrolled at Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas on a scholarship from the Business and Professional Women's Club. In 1965, Silkwood dropped out of college and eloped with William Meadows, an oil pipeline worker, with whom she had three children. After

6384-405: Was awake, he added two other observations. The first was the anomalous fact that her car had veered from the right lane to the left shoulder: "In most one-vehicle accidents where the driver has gone to sleep, or because of impaired abilities," Pipkin noted, "the vehicle has always gone off to the right because of the contour of the road, namely the crown." The second thing Pipkin reported was that

6468-419: Was chief attorney for Kerr-McGee. The estate presented evidence that the autopsy showed Silkwood was contaminated with plutonium at the time of her death. To prove the contamination was sustained at the plant, evidence was given by a series of witnesses who were former employees of the facility. The defense relied on expert witness Dr. George Voelz, a high-ranking scientist at Los Alamos . Voelz said he believed

6552-416: Was discovered in her smashed-up car, 7.3 miles from the cafe. The car had run off the left side of State Highway 74 , traveled some distance along the grass shoulder, and then struck the wing wall of a concrete culvert 0.11 miles (180 m) south of the intersection with West Industrial Road ( 35°51′N 97°35′W  /  35.85°N 97.58°W  / 35.85; -97.58 ). The impact from hitting

6636-624: Was established from the facilities created under the Manhattan Project . Argonne National Laboratory was one of the first laboratories authorized under this legislation as a contractor-operated facility dedicated to fulfilling the new AEC's missions. Argonne was the first of the regional laboratories to involve universities in the Chicago area. Others were the Clinton (CEW) labs and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in

6720-541: Was one thing she was glad about ... that she had all the proof concerning falsification of records. As she said this, she clenched her hand more firmly on the folder and notebook she was holding. She told me she was on her way to meet Steve Wodka and a New York Times reporter ... to give them this material." At 7:10 p.m., Silkwood left the meeting, got into her 1973 white Honda Civic and drove alone toward Oklahoma City, about 30 miles (48 km) away, to meet with Burnham and Wodka. Less than 30 minutes later, Silkwood's body

6804-406: Was rammed from behind with intent to cause a fatal crash. OCAW officials Mazzocchi and Wodka did not believe it was premeditated murder because that stretch of highway is flat, and the odds of her hitting an obstruction like a concrete culvert were so remote. Instead, they suspected it was an attempt, which went tragically awry, to scare and intimidate her into stopping her whistleblowing and returning

6888-436: Was some fooling with the computer data, too. I said, "Look, Karen, if you could prove that, I think we could use it to beat the company and improve the conditions in that facility." At the conclusion of the meeting, Mazzocchi and his staffer Steve Wodka counseled that the best hope for survival of the Cimarron workers and their local was to raise awareness about Kerr-McGee's practices with the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and

6972-534: Was still cheap, and the electric power industry was not interested. The first experimental nuclear power plant was started in Pennsylvania under President Eisenhower in 1954. The AEC developed a program for sourcing uranium domestically. Before 1947, the main sources for the mineral had been Canada and (what was then) the Belgian Congo, though the Manhattan Project also secretly processed uranium from

7056-404: Was the culmination of long months of intensive debate among politicians, military planners and atomic scientists over the fate of this new energy source and the means by which it would be regulated. President Truman appointed David Lilienthal as the first Chairman of the AEC. Congress gave the new civilian AEC extraordinary power and considerable independence to carry out its mission. To provide

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